The antang was concluded, and Lele was betrothed to Dudim, the son of the lukes from the next Manobo hamlet. When Lele’s father broke the news to her, she nodded meekly, even forced herself to smile. But as soon as the old man was out of the hut, tears raced down her cheeks.
The girl glanced out the window and saw Saluding under a tree, staring back at her. His face was dark and his jaw was clenched. There was no longer any future for them.
The bamboo floor creaked and Lele recognized the familiar footsteps of her mother. The girl wiped her cheeks with her hands and Saluding walked away.
Lele’s mother must have caught the glances between her daughter and Saluding, but the woman acted as though she did not notice anything. “Come here, Lele,” she said. “Put this sudung on your hair. You have to look beautiful. Hurry, now.”
“I don’t want to go out of the house, Ina,” Lele said.
“Don’t embarrass your uncle, Lele. He is our lukes and he has arranged a good marriage for you. All he is asking you to do now is go to his hut and bid goodbye to your future husband and his father.”
“Ina, I don’t want to get married. I don’t like Dudim.”
Read the rest of the story here. Correction: The Manobo word for mother, as I recently learned from a dictionary, is inay, not ina. My apologies to the readers of Dagmay. I’ll bear in mind to consult a reliable text next time instead of just asking around. Curiously, ina in Manobo language means aunt.
